MODERN BRIGIDS 2023
To mark Brigid’s Day, Ireland’s first ever national holiday dedicated to a woman, we are celebrating the modern women who embody her qualities and share her passions as environmentalist, feminist, Pride icon, healer, pioneer, human rights activist, goddess of the arts, alchemist and wisdom weaver. St. Brigid may be a woman who lived 1,500 years ago and the Celtic goddess Brigid pre-dates Christianity, but she continues to inspire today…
Dr. Diana Beresford–Kroeger is a medical biochemist and botanist known all around the world for her dedication to trees and nature, and the knowledge she draws from her deep Celtic ancestry. A self-ascribed ‘renegade scientist,’ she is ‘one of the world’s leading experts on the many medicinal properties of trees. Discover herstory.
“Without trees, we could not survive. The trees laid the path for the human soul.”
Dr. Easkey Britton - surfer, artist & academic
For many years now, Easkey Britton has been pioneering women’s big-wave surfing in Ireland. A professional marine social scientist with a PhD in Environment and Society, Easkey’s work ‘explores the relationship between people and nature’ and more recently has revolved around ‘exploring the use of blue and green space to restore health and wellbeing.’ Discover herstory.
Source: Thomas Hein
Source: Kari Cahill
Kari Cahill is a visual artist who paints using natural earth pigments and through ‘harnessing the elemental and solar energy of our landscapes.’ She characterises her work ‘as site-responsive and experimental, based on an attempt to capture the essential aspects of colour, texture and energy that I find rooted in landscapes.’ Discover herstory.
“Artistically, my aim is to drive artists and the experience of art outwards into the wild environments of the natural world. My artistic practice contributes to the development of new perspectives on our cultural, historical and natural landscape.”
Ailbhe Smyth is well known in feminist and activist circles for her decades of women’s rights’ and LGBTQ+ activism. She was a founding member of Marriage Equality and a co-director of the Together for Yes campaign in the lead up to the Repeal the 8th referendum. In 2019, she, alongside two other co-directors of Together for Yes, were listed as one of the Time 100’s most influential people. Discover herstory.
Source: GCN
Born in 1934, Nancy Cárdenas was the first person to come out in Mexico on live television and went on to pioneer the Mexican gay movement. A writer, journalist, playwright and director, Nancy helped to ‘increase the visibility of Latina lesbians’ and in 1974, founded the first gay organization in Mexico - Frente de Liberación Homosexual Mexicano. Discover herstory.
“Of course, if we change the future we change the past.”
Ifrah is an Irish/Somali activist and campaigner. Having arrived in Ireland in 2006, aged 17, she set up her first organisation, United Youth of Ireland in 2008, in response to youth immigrant integration issues in her country of adoption. From personal experience, she leant her voice to the FGM campaign in Ireland and further afield in Europe and turned her focus to the specific gender issue of FGM by founding the Civil Society Organisation that carries her name, Ifrah Foundation in 2012. Discover herstory.
Riane Eisler was born in Austria in 1931 before she and her family fled from the Nazis in 1939 to Cuba, eventually settling in the US. Her writing ‘pioneered the expansion of human rights theory and action to include the majority of humanity: women and children’ and her most well-known book The Chalice and the Blade, published in the 1980s, introduced domination and partnership theories which still have relevance today. Discover herstory.
Sinéad Burke - Irish writer, academic and disability activist
From the moment Sinéad entered primary school, she ‘understood the power of education and its value in being a catalyst to combat ignorance, to challenge the status quo and to give agency and opportunity to the most vulnerable.’ Since then, she has worked tirelessly to ‘highlight the lack of inclusivity within the fashion and design industries and consult with leadership to ensure the process of designing for, with and by disabled people is embedded into their business model.’ Discover herstory.
At the Met Gala, 2019. Photo: Theo Wargo/WireImage
Source: IHREC
Rosaleen McDonagh is ‘a Traveller woman with a disability’ and is known for writing largely ‘within the framework of a Traveller feminist perspective.’ An activist too, she is a board member of Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre and was appointed a Human Rights Commissioner in 2020. In 2021 she released her first book, Unsettled, which ‘explores racism, ableism, abuse and resistance as well as the bonds of community, family and friendship.’ Discover herstory.
“Students are absolutely pivotal to social movements…change comes from the voices of young people, opening up the conversation to the older generation.”
In 2016, when abortion in Ireland was illegal, Anna Cosgrave launched the Repeal Project to ‘move the conversation onto a jumper’ as a ‘stigma-buster for the lonely unsupported women, living with shame, to feel supported.’ The black jumper with just the word ‘Repeal’ in white lettering across the front brought the conversation into the open and onto the streets. As well as this, the Repeal Project helped ‘raise hundreds of thousands for volunteer organisations working on the campaign’ and brought young activists and old, musicians, artists and emigrants together to fight for abortion rights. Discover herstory.
Source: College Tribune
Source: Rutgers Uni
When she was just eleven years old in 2015, Marley Dias launched #1000BlackGirlBooks with the intention of collecting 1,000 books with black female protagonists to donate for black girls at other schools. Within a few months, she had far surpassed her original target while highlighting the lack of diversity in children’s books. In 2018, Marley was ‘the youngest member of the Forbes 30 under 30’ list and since 2021, she has been the Ambassador for the National Education Association's Read Across America programme. Discover herstory.
“It was the desire to see black girls and our experiences in the books that I was given to read at school that forced me to speak my truth. I launched #1000BlackGirlBooks, a book drive to collect the stories of women of color.”
As a journalist, Asieh Amini has been a leading voice in the campaign to end stoning and juvenile executions in Iran since the early 00s. In 2006, she and her friend, human rights lawyer Shadi Sadr, founded the Stop Stoning Forever (SSF) campaign but increased scrutiny on her activism meant she was forced to flee Iran for Norway in 2009. Irrespective of this, Asieh continues to fight against censorship and other human rights abuses in the country to this day. Discover herstory.
Source: ICORN
Hilary Barry is founder and Secretary General of the LadyAgri Impact Investment Hub established ‘to tackle the specific needs of women in agri-business with tailor made solutions to overcome systemic constraints, improve quality and market access.’ Since her first experience in Ghana in 1993, Hilary has ‘dedicated her entire career to social impact programmes across sub-saharan Africa’ as an ‘avid supporter of the Africa-EU partnership.’ She is a strong believer that ‘patient investment in women in agri-supply chains, though challenging, will have a ‘rising tide’ effect and wide social impact.’ Discover herstory.
Sonita Alizadeh - rapper, activist
Sonita Alizadeh was born in Afghanistan but grew up a refugee in Iran where she faced forced marriage at the age of just 10. Luckily, this didn’t come to pass, but again at the age of 16, her mother came to her with the news that she would be sold into marriage. Instead, Sonita recorded her powerful and evocative video — Daughters for Sale — and uploaded it to YouTube where it went viral. In 2015, she was recognised as one of BBC’s 100 Women of the year and with the help of the nonprofit Strongheart Group, Sonita moved to the US where she continues her advocacy. Discover herstory.
“The world is full of girls with bright minds and big hopes. Imagine what could happen if their true value was seen, and everyone, both boys and girls, could make their dreams come true.”
Source: Reuters
Source: @IlwadElman on Twitter
Following in the footsteps of her parents, Ilwad Elman is a prominent Somali peace activist. When her father was assassinated in 1996, she and her family moved to Canada as refugees, however in 2010, as the conflict continued, they returned as adults and set up the Elman Peace Centre. Aged just 20, Ilwad co-founded Somalia’s first rape crisis centre and since then has ‘become a champion of building peace through giving all those impacted by conflict – particularly women and girls – a seat at the table.’ Discover herstory.
“When you hear about war or conflict, you never really are able to understand it really until you’re in it. Everything that we see in Hollywood productions — in big movies — was in my backyard.”
Josephine Hart - poet, novelist
Born in Monaghan in 1942, Josephine Hart was ‘a word child. Poets were not only my heroes, they were indeed the gods of language.’ It was her husband Maurice who encouraged her creative career however. Having listened to her complain of the lack of poetry events in London, he suggested she start one herself – and thus, the Josephine Hart Poetry Hour was born! From 1987 onwards, Josephine organised poetry readings at the British Library, occasionally visiting the National Theatre or the New York Public Library. Discover herstory.
Source: The John Hewitt Society
Nandi Jola is a South African born poet, storyteller and playwright. Her one woman play of monologues and dance, The Journey opened the International Literature Festival Dublin in 2020. Her work often explores the concept of home, of belonging and connection. Her daughter, Anesu, born in Northern Ireland, is also a writer and has explored her identity as a second-generation immigrant through her work, such as with her first piece Where am I from?, published in 2017 for the Northern Ireland Youth Forum’s Black history month campaign. Discover herstory here and here.
“As a minority growing up in Northern Ireland, I have always been the one expected to explain race to people. If someone says something racist, I am expected as a black person to call that person out and then have a long discussion with them about their actions. It gets tiring. Especially when you are doing it from a young age and looking around at the world and nothing seems to be changing.”
Source: CAP Arts Centre
Laura Murphy is a poet, activist, healer and award-winning senior communications strategist. In addition to her work for leading Irish brands, she consults for and contributes to Herstory as their poet-in-residence. Laura is the daughter of a Mother and Baby home survivor and is an outspoken campaigner on issues surrounding equality, environmental and social healing in Ireland. Discover herstory and follow her on Insta here.
Source: Irish Examiner
Tara Flynn is a well-known Irish actress, voice artist, writer, comedy improviser and occasional columnist. In 2015, she went public with her own story of travelling abroad for an abortion and from then became one of the leading activists in the campaign for a repeal of the 8th Amendment. Since then, she has spoken out about how difficult that campaign was, and the coming back from it, through her 2022 show Haunted which ran in the Abbey Theatre to great acclaim. Discover herstory.
Susan Quirke - musician, meditation teacher
Susan Quirke is a singer, songwriter, and recording artist who released her debut album ‘Into the Sea’ in 2021. An advanced certified meditation teacher and a leader of mass meditation experiences, she has brought meditation to thousands of people throughout Ireland and globally. Susan is also a multi award-winning social entrepreneur for her work in the field of mental health and wellbeing. Discover herstory.
Source: Extra.ie
Source: @Storiesofuna on Twitter
Una Taaffe, who died in 2006, isn’t widely known, but to those native to Galway, she is one of the great characters of the city. As a young woman she was ‘a renowned beauty and socialite who would host fabulous tennis parties in the family home’ but as an older woman, she took over the family knitwear shop which was very popular amongst tourists. Una bucked the trend and took in those who were rejected by society at the time. She hired single mothers when no one else would and her shop became home to stray dogs and cats and for some time, homeless people took up residence there too.
Ellen O’ Malley Dunlop - co-founder of Bard Mythologies, advocate
From her early life, Ellen O’Malley Dunlop has been ‘fighting the system.’ In the 1980s, she set up a marriage and parenting counselling centre with the Dominicans and later established her own private practice and ‘worked, as a psychotherapist, with individuals who had suffered from sexual abuse, both as adults and in their childhood.’ In 2006, she became the CEO of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre. Together with her husband, she founded Bard Mythologies to ‘revive the Bardic Tradition, a wisdom of the people, which helps us to view life beneath the surface and make sense of the world around us through story, folklore, symbols and archetypal characters.’ Discover herstory.
Source: Independent.ie
Source: The Celtic Wheel
Almost two decades ago, Mari Kennedy ‘left a career as a strategist in the public and private sector that included seven years spent working with the President of Ireland’ due to burn out. Since leaving that path she has ‘dedicated herself to reweaving the healthy feminine and healthy masculine in her own life.’ Over the last 17 years, she has been a student of many wisdom traditions and has worked closely with Dolores Whelan, author, teacher, spiritual guide, healer, way-shower and pioneer. Together, they are the Celtic Wheel - ‘re-enchanting our world with the lost wisdom of our ancestors.’ Discover herstory.
Dr. Karen Ward - founder of MoonMná & Brigid’s Way
Karen Ward has ‘always loved the archetypal energies of Grandmother Moon and combined with a yearning to sit in Irish themed Women’s Circles, she founded Moon Mná in 2009.’ Brigid’s Way, then, was founded by Karen and Dolores Whelan, an initiative ‘inspired by a strong desire in these two Irish women to revive the ancient art of pilgrimage, a spiritual practice central to the indigenous spiritual traditions of this land.’ Discover herstory.
Source: Moon Mná
Source: IMDb
In 1999, Nora Twomey co-founded Cartoon Saloon - an award-winning Irish animation film, short film and television studio based in Kilkenny. Since then, she has worked as co-director on The Secret of Kells - which was nominated for an Oscar, head of story on Song of the Sea and as sole director of The Breadwinner. Giovanna Ferrari was a storyboard artist at Cartoon Saloon and has since climbed the ladder to Director and has worked with Nora on some of Cartoon Saloon’s most highly acclaimed features, including most recently, My Father’s Dragon which released on Netflix in 2022. Learn more here.
Researched by Katelyn Hanna.
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